Epic Games is no stranger to having unreleased cosmetics fully finished that just never release in the game, but sometimes they decide to grace us with a glimpse into that land by granting us a bonus item from the Fortnite cosmetic vault entirely for free. It was announced earlier yesterday that Epic Games would be giving out a free loading screen to all players in Fortnite who logged in during April 25th or 26th, and they even included some backstory, so let’s talk about it!
In the post on X (Formally Twitter) Epic Games shouted out a website known as Fortnite.gg, a community ran site that keeps track of item shops, cosmetics, and more. Something interesting about this shout however was the fact that Epic Games explicitly promoted datamining in a slight capacity, by mentioning the website has a list of datamined cosmetics which never ended up release, the A Night Out free loading screen being one of those. Originally added to the files all the way back during Chapter 4: Season 1 of Fortnite in 2022/2023, the A Night Out loading screen was themed around the High Stakes Club.
This loading screen went unreleased for years, with many who were a fan of the in-game club wishing they could get it to complete personal High Stakes Club collections. What made the lore behind this loading screen more interesting however was an old leak about a set of Artistic Showcase outfits originally set for the Item Shop back in the day that would’ve featured the originally unreleased loading screen in it. This was discovered by KPMisParrot back in October 2025.
As you can see by the images provided, one of the outfits featured that exact same loading screen now given out for free as a bonus item. This has caused some in the community to speculate that we might never see the Artistic Showcase bundle releasing in the game, however others feel more optimistic. Those who believe it could still happen claim that Epic Games can just change the bundled loading screen and make a new render image for the skin. Those who feel like it’s a lost cause debate about how the cosmetics existed in the files for a long time before eventually being removed from the public build everyone has, so the odds of it actually releasing are slim.
In the past Epic Games has bought community concepts and even created entirely new skins for the game that they never ended up putting in the full files, as seen by previous leaks which included huge ID lists of cosmetics that to this day nobody has images of.
Why Give it Away Now?
The reason behind the “A Night Out” loading screen being given away now is actually due to Fortnite Festivals new Karaoke mode! There are honestly a lot of loading screens Epic Games could have given out to the community as a free celebratory login reward but they specifically chose A Night Out due to it being part of a popular in-game group while also matching the aesthetic of Fortnite Festival being that of a true concert vibe.
Due to this order of events, there is new hope in older Fortnite cosmetics releasing into the game as bonus rewards, free login benefits, and potentially future questlines. Some scrapped collaboration items such as old banner icons, emoticons, and other goodies for events like Naruto in Fortnite may forever stay forgotten due to the licensing debates that go on behind the scenes but only time will tell.
When Does The Freebie End?
If you are someone who just wants to get the freebie before it is gone and get out of there, we have good news! The grant for the loading screen is currently active until tomorrow, April 26th, at 11:59 PM ET. After that time is up the reward will be going back into the Epic Games vault until they potentially release it again in the future.
Still undecided? Below you can see the full quality version of the Loading Screen. If this is something you could see yourself rocking in game, make sure to launch the game. You are not required to play a match to obtain this or anything, simply by logging into the game and going to the lobby on Console, PC, Cloud Gaming, or any other medium that can connect to the servers should grant you it right away!
If you need some more freebies to grab while they’re available, check out our previous article about Fortnite’s most recent Reload map that has a few free rewards to grab. Just be warned those freebies do require a bit of actual gameplay to get your hands onto.
